For the past three months, my desktop monitor has been a shiny new Seiki 39″ 4K television. That’s right, 39 inches of glorious pixels, 3840×2160 of them to be exact. It works beautifully, and was worth every penny. Serious programmers who want to look at a lot of code at once, I welcome you to do your own research on 4K TVs and monitors and consider one for yourself.

However, that is not what this post is really about, because life wasn’t always so easy.

This is where the Christmas story comes in: 8th grade. One of the most memorable Christmases of my life, because this was the Christmas when I got my first computer: a Commodore VIC-20. Hooked up to a TV, it produced a 176×184 pixel display, good for 22 rows by 23 columns of text. But, sadly, it did not start out that way. We had difficulties right out of the box getting the TV synced up, so there was no display at all. Did this stop this budding programmer to be? Heck no. I started typing in my first Commodore Basic program in the blind. Now, let’s not get into the details about how well that program turned out, but suffice it to say, that as far as computer monitor resolution goes, I started at zero.

That’s not me… my screen was blank.

Years later, the VIC-20 would be replaced with a C64, and my pixels nearly doubled. I now had 320×200, and 40 columns of text. They again doubled when I graduated to an Amiga 500 in college and found myself staring at a flickering interlace display of 640×400 pixels. I could see 80 columns of text!

My first taste of wide-column programming was the VT-100 terminal in the college computer lab which I could set to 132-columns. By the way, this annoyed other students who didn’t know how to change the display mode settings and also did not enjoy squinting as much as I did. I should take this opportunity to apologize to those guys, writing Pascal on a VAX 11/780 had enough pitfalls for a college freshman — I shouldn’t have made it worse for them. Another interesting side-note is that the Slick-C command record_macro_end_execute_key() which you might find assigned to Ctrl+Shift+F1–F10 was inspired by the macro recording features of the Eve editor on the VAX.

In graduate school, I was exposed to Sun workstations with 19 inch CRT monitors that were about the size of a mini-fridge and consumed about as much energy as a Nissan Leaf at a tractor pull. 1152×900 pixels of delightful X-windows wonder. I eventually would trade my Amiga 2000 for a Sun 3 of my own, which became my home computer for quite some time. These were the salad days of C and C++ programming with the VI editor.

When I joined SlickEdit, I moved to Windows as my primary machine and eventually graduated to a machine with a 19 inch 1600×1200 CRT monitor that kept my desk firmly pinned to the floor. This served me well, until the day that SlickEdit started getting daily complaints about how list-members in SlickEdit 4.0 did not work correctly with a multi-monitor setup on Windows. Apparently, the list was coming up on the wrong monitor, and this would just not do. Happy with my one big monitor, I felt like these people were just being silly using two smaller monitors to get about the same amount of resolution, but I begrudgingly set up a dual-monitor configuration on my machine and proceeded to fix the display bugs. What I did not expect was that I would fall in love with having multiple monitors. It allowed me to work faster and keep track of more things at once. I thought I would never go back to a single monitor.

When 17-inch 1280×1024 resolution LCD monitors dropped below the $100 price point, I soon I had four monitors on my desk. This was the most pixels I’d ever had in front of me, but it was not enough, because they were too narrow for DiffZilla. I would eventually replace two of the LCDs with 21-inch HD monitors, one in vertical orientation and one in landscape for DiffZilla.

All those machines and all those monitors are gone now, dust in the winds of change. 4K is the current zenith of display technology. A lot of people are already using dual 4K monitors, and Apple is shipping 5k retina displays. I look forward to seeing 50 inch curved 8k displays in the future.

I could tile 252 VIC-20 screens on my current display. That’s a whole screen for every other character the on the VIC-20.

I concede that the gains in the other areas are somewhat more dramatic. But, when you are a programmer, what tends to matter the most to you is how many lines of code you can look at at once, and more importantly, with what degree of comfort you can absorb and navigate through the code. My personal opinion is that 4k has both improved my productivity and allowed me to award myself with a slightly larger font to cut down on eye strain. Given the current bargain prices (less than $400), it was more than worth it.

If you are thinking about buying an iPhone 6 Plus or a Samsung Note 4, this article may help you. Trying to decide between these phones mostly comes down to the software, familiarity with one of the OSes, your purchasing habits (are you invested in iTunes?), and product support.

I have experience using both the iPhone and Samsung phones as well as investigating, pretty intensely, how to get the most out of Android/Samsung apps. I really like how Samsung has copied some of the iPhone software features. For example, the Samsung OS displays badges on your Phone, Messages, and Email app icons just like the iPhone. I’m not a big fan of just having Android centralized notifications. The Samsung OS also has a much more iPhone-like phone app with integrated voice mail. For me, this is also a big deal since many of the Android phone apps are terrible compared to the iPhone phone app.

I have ended up purchasing the iPhone 6 Plus after using the Samsung S3 for 2 years and an iPhone for about 3 years before that. This decision was so close that I’ll be jealous of anyone who has the Note 4.

Are you Capable of Switching OSes?

If you’ve been using an iPhone or an Android for a long time, switching OSes takes time. Unless you are a slightly more advanced user and/or have a compelling reason, I wouldn’t recommend switching OSes. It’s probably not worth your time since both these OSes will get the job done. A number of basic things are implemented very differently like: adjusting the cursor position, copy/paste, and selecting text. I find both the iOS and Android implementations of these important features very good. It took me a while to get used to how my Samsung S3 did these. Where to find configuration settings is very different. Not all iOS apps are available on Android and vice versa. Before you switch OSes, be sure to check if the apps you need are available.

Advantages of Note 4 Over iPhone 6 Plus:

Back button at the bottom of the phone. The iPhone 6 Plus needs this for better one handed phone use. The back button has more value than just one hand use too. If you are reading an email which has a URL link in it, clicking on it brings up your web browser. Then you can press the back button to return to your email (not the home screen). Android has an internal stack which the Back button uses. iOS needs this too.

The Samsung Note 4 is not quite as tall as the iPhone 6 Plus and has a slightly larger screen. This is partly due to the fact that the Note 4 has a thin horizontal button which takes up less space. At least the new iPhone 6 Plus has a smaller home button than older iPhone models.

As you’ve probably already heard, the Note 4 is less bendable. If you put your phone in your pocket, the iPhone 6 plus is much more likely to bend. I don’t keep my phone in my pocket. I used to keep my phone in my pocket until I noticed my hip starting to hurt. I’ve learned the hard way that radiation from your cell phone affects your bodies ability to heal. Once I stopped keeping my phone in my pocket, the pain went away. My body wasn’t able to heal itself enough after my workouts due to the combination of radiation from my cell phone and my age.

Easier to configure home screens. I especially don’t like how iOS auto arranges icons. I like my more important app icons to be in very specific places on my home screens and iOS makes this difficult to manage.

Menu button at the bottom. The iPhone needs this too but since many apps have buttons at the bottom, it’s not that big a deal.

More apps which display lists support multi select operations.

Many more configuration options. This is only useful if there’s an option you like and can’t find something similar in iOS.

Widgets (like contacts and weather) can be placed on the home screen just like apps. I found the default widgets useless and large so I removed them but I love putting contacts on my home screen. The new iOS 8 double click the home button feature to display recent phone history and favorites is OK. I still would prefer to have some contact icons on my home screen. I suspect Apple will add support for Widgets in a future OS and maybe then iOS will have the ability to add Contact icons to your home screen.

Android has more of a typical file system. This is especially useful for copying pictures from a computer onto your Android phone. I really don’t like to use iTunes to import/export pictures.

Can root phone. This can be useful for more advanced users. For me, this has very little value. Some Android users root their phone so they can use their phone as a Wifi hotspot. Now, most users don’t need to do this due to carrier changes.

Advantages of iPhone 6 Plus Over Note 4

Better support for product. The Apple store offers better support for the iPhone than any other mobile device. If you are a less advanced user, this is a very big deal and arguably makes the Note 4, or any non-Apple device, a no go.

Easier to use and configure. More things just work for me with less or no configuring.

UI experience. More of the apps I’ve seen have a consistent look and feel with good looking graphics.

Slightly better apps. This will be very different for everyone. For me, the following apps are slightly better on iPhone: phone, email, calendar, camera, text messaging, photos viewer, and ScoreMobile (Exceptions: GTasks on Android is a little better than all iOS Google Tasks apps I tried, and Mobi Calculator Free on Android is better than any iOS calculator app I tried)

Slightly better one handed use due to the new Reachability feature. I love this Reachability feature. If the iPhone also had a back button, this would make the iPhone a much clearer winner here. Right now, there’s not much difference. I give the iPhone 6 plus the edge because the Note 4’s “One-handed operation” feature is not very good. For me the iPhone 6 Plus is the clear winner here because I hold my phone with my left hand (even though I’m right handed) which makes the back button at the top left of the screen easy for my big mitt to reach.

iTunes. If you buy apps, movies, books, or whatever, Apple has a slightly better buying experience.

Touch screen. I find the iPhone screen slightly more accurate/responsive.

I slightly prefer how iOS does cut/paste with worded buttons near the cursor instead of non-worded icon buttons at the top or bottom of the screen.

Speaker on bottom instead of back of phone

Security. Arguably better because apps go through an Apple review.

Conclusion

There are many features in both devices I have not mentioned to keep this article short (Family Sharing, AirPlay, Siri, hardware specifics, etc.). I have only mentioned the more basic or significant advantages of either device. I hope this information helps you decide which phone is best for you. Keep in mind that switching OSes can be difficult. You can’t go wrong buying either of these phones.

That’s right folks. It’s hacky. It’s silly. It’s inevitable. But it’s time for March Madness (Note – Readers outside the US read this to catch up March Madness). That’s right. It’s time for a bracket of 32 (because I can’t come up with 64, and certainly not 68) things that annoy us. Some programming related, some not, in our search for the most annoying item that wins the First (perhaps annual) SlickEdit March Madness Tournament.

Vote for your favorite item in the comment section below.Much like Whose Line is it Anyway, where the rules are made up and points don’t matter, it won’t matter what you vote for because we’ll pick the winners of each round and report them to you as though your vote mattered.

Up first, the Grace Hopper Division: Programming Languages. Everybody has a language that annoys them simply by its existence.

COBOL – It’s an acronym that stands for somthing with “Business” in it. It’s way too wordy, and it’s outlived all the languages that were supposed to replace it.

Perl – There’s a lot to like in Perl. But unfortunately TMTOWTDI has gone way too far here. When you have 5 ways to do a regex search, that’s 3 too many. And while using $_ for “the last expression result” is pretty cool, all the rest of the short-hand two-character $ variables are simply there for the cognoscenti to show off and confound all but the author.

Java – Sun invents their own interpreted, object oriented language. The whole world jumps on board. As far as I can tell, for the first 10 years the only applications written in Java are Java Development Kits.

C++ – For our beloved tagging guru, I will simply list the STL as the biggest sin of C++.

“Semicolons Optional” languages – Good grief. Why do this? Sure, using syntactically significant whitespace makes your source code look nice and tidy. But languages that do this make it harder for tool vendors to write proper support for the language, thereby limiting the number of 3rd party tools.

The Functional Language Diaspora – I’m not against functional languages. They’re vital and valuable, but still something of a niche, and shall always be thus. So do we need so darned many to fill said niche? Let’s put grandpa (Lisp) on the ice floe and push him out to sea along with Haskell, Erlang, and Scheme. Scala and F# can stay. Clojure gets a pass for now…

XML – It’s one language that contains every other language. Its overly-broad application and misuse is responsible for the forced early retirement of the INI format.

Dennis Miller Division: Cultural/Societal Phenomena

People who go on about organic food – If I’m eating a salad, I’m trying. I don’t want to hear about the problems with the lettuce being genetically modified. It’s LETTUCE. Until it gets up and walks around, leave me alone.

Checks with 20__ in the date line – Forget the fact that I had to shred a pile of unused 19__ checks when Y2K rolled around, and I know I’ll never need to write a check with 21__ in it. But still, I don’t like the fact that the few checks I do write look like March 17th2013

People who spend all day cluttering your Facebook feed by liking photos – I should learn how to shut this off.

Twitter – I guess it’s here to stay… but after 5+ years I’ll just admit, I don’t get it.

“Not Responsible for Windshield Damage” – Yes, you are responsible, you accountability-dodging cretins. You slap on a bumper stick that says “Stay Back 300 feet” (ignoring the fact it can only be read when within 150 feet) and you think that gives you carte blanche to scatter gravel all over the roadways?

$1.59 for a 16oz Coke - I don’t mind the price, per se, just the fact the same Circle K sells a 2 liter bottle for only 40¢ more. Well, I can’t jam a 2 liter bottle into my car’s cup holders. Why don’t they jack up the price of the 2 liter to $2.50 and use that to subsidize my impulse purchase down to $1? And I won’t feel so ripped off.

$1 Double Cheeseburgers – I just don’t need this kind of temptation in my life.

Hacky Humor-oriented March Madness Bracket Lists – Yep.

Rolling Stone Division: Music and Movies:

Coldplay – It sounds like U2 played by a comic lounge singer

Kanye West’s performance at that benefit show – I’m thinking of the 12/12/12 one, but others may apply

Boy bands – a trend that keeps coming back like the bad guy in a horror movie

Coldplay – New album is different you say? Nope – It still sounds like U2 played by a comic lounge singer

Computer I Grew Up With Division (Under 40 need not apply): Oddities of the “computers” we grew up with. Computers is in quotation marks because they aren’t exactly what we consider computers now.

The Commodore Vic-20 – How can I include my beloved first computer? Because after it loaded the BASIC interpreter it had 3.5K of RAM, that’s how. 3.5K. Not G, not M. K. Dim A$ 16,16,16. Error out of memory.

The Atari 400 – I never had one, but it didn’t have a real keyboard. Those touch pads probably seemed really futuristic until you actually tried to type on it.

The Apple II E – Somebody has to take the blame for unleashing the original Apple fan boys on the world. I nominate the IIE.

The Apple II GS – Sleeker and more colorful than previous Apple II series, but not quite as cool as the impending Macintosh II. An expensive ,short-lived tease.